Customer Reviews

Slide Guitar: Know The Players, Play The Music (Book & CD)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For anyone with an interest in slide or alternating bass thumb picking, Pete's your man. He knows his stuff, and this book is as much a tour of the style and his personal tastes, as a primer on playing. Pete is a great player, and the guy any sane person would want as a teacher. The book is full of the types of explanations, exercises, and song titles you could expect as his student. If you aren't where he's at, this book's the next best thing.

Over the past six months I've purchased a half dozen books and DVDs in order to learn slide guitar, but this is the book I return to over and over again. The book and helpful CD begin with exercises that help develop basic slide technique and then progress from simple songs and riffs to more complex, full length songs. Madsen includes many of his own original compositions in several different styles that really give you a flavor for this great musical art form. Highly recommended.

The accompanying CD begins naturally enough with the author introducing himself by showing off his slide chops. His intonation is off and his playing is sloppy. Unfortunately the book and package are just as inept. For starters, the CD tracks don't match the numbers that are given in the book. A completely different system of numbering is used for the CD tracks making it hard to pick out the tracks you want to hear. Also, the notation of the examples is constantly in error. It is as if the author was not familiar with music notation. There are errors in rhythmic notation throughout in addition to improper notational conventions. Also, with all of the excercises in G tuning, B flat is written as A sharp which will drive any educated musician crazy. For instance; the C7 chord is spelled C-E-G-A#. How did that get past the editors? The first part of the book is a survey of slide guitar players from the past to the present which is informative. But on page 40 he talks about Jimmy Page, and the photo that goes with Jimmy Page? None other than Syd Barrett! (Pink Floyd). This makes me question the veracity and accuracy of the information within. I plan on seeking out other materials.

The book is attractively laid out and the history and biographical sketches of famous or important slide players adds something to the overall product. However, as another reviewer has noted, the titles of the tracks as cited in the text does not match up with the tracks on the CD. You will have to go through all 54 tracks and write the number of the actual track onto the text. Pete Madsen might be a fine player, but the publisher needs to fire the editor that let this product out the door.